I've been a little obsessed with researching jobs lately, and yesterday I had a sudden idea to research job levels. Let me summarize the research results for you. Of course, this is only for IT-related companies.

Classification of technical positions

Entry level engineer

They are usually fresh graduates with little work experience. This generally refers to undergraduate and high school graduation. Generally, many companies count the two years of graduate school as some work experience, so graduate students usually start at the next level.

Junior Level engineer

This is usually 1-3 years of work experience. During this period, some companies will also have a middle level. There is no unified regulation for this. Most middle and junior levels are together.

Senior Level engineer

Generally, it is at least three years of work experience, and in some places it is more than five years.

Principal engineer

The chief engineer, as the name suggests, is a very important position.

Architect/Distinguished

Architects, generally architects and engineers have different responsibilities, but architects have very high experience and technical requirements, so this position is ranked above the main engineer. It is basically the highest level of technical level.

Classification of management positions

Let’s talk about management. Generally, after reaching senior level, you can choose to take the management route or the technical route. Of course, this is not certain, but after senior level, your experience and technology will be more recognized.

The management routes are as follows:

Staff engineer

This level is similar to a project team leader, who leads and manages the technical team on projects. This is not very common, because most of them go directly to the PM below.

Project/Product Manager

Project manager, director of one or more projects. Of course, many non-technical children can come directly to work as PMs. This is also very normal. However, what we are discussing here is those with technical backgrounds. There is actually a big difference between non-technical PMs and technical ones.

Senior manager

Higher-level management is generally divided based on years of experience, and you will be automatically promoted after a few years of service. But this division is not available everywhere.

Director

If this position is divided in parallel with technology, it is above principle engineer. It is similar to the leader of a group of principle engineer.

Senior Director

Same thing as senior manager

Vice President

This is at the partner level. In many cases, this position is not promoted from one level to another, but hired from outside. Therefore, it often seems that this position is very high-level, but it does have a higher level than others. VPs who have been promoted from management positions are generally the backbone of the company.

President/CTO

I won’t introduce this anymore, everyone knows it.

postscript

The above job levels are only a rough approximation. Each company has different situations and different hierarchical classification systems. The same title from different companies may have very different levels. It is for reference only. If there is anything wrong, please correct me.

In addition, I would like to share a website for checking the levels of several large companies: http://www.levels.fyi/. It can compare the levels of various companies in parallel.